Stock Your RA Pantry: Collect Staff Quarantine Reads

I am back with Stock Your RA Pantry, a series of posts that address the things you can do from home to enhance your RA Services and Resources both now and going forward. And, these are all things any library worker can do, no matter what their official job at the library happens to be.

Today, I want to take advantage the increased organizational communication that is happening these days. In fact, let's stray off topic a bit and address this one remarkable and wonderful outcome of social distancing. From my personal experience with my library and from what I am hearing from colleagues all over the country, library staff as a whole are now communicating with each other better than ever before.

Library departments tend to function like silos. Which each department doing their own thing. When I come in to do full staff training, one of my biggest goals is to use the shared staff love of books and reading to bring everyone together. I call my company RA for All not only because I think anyone can participate in RA Service from any position in the library, but also because it is something that can bring everyone together. Everyone on staff has a deep connections to books. Seriously, because if they didn't they would work somewhere else for more money.

Communication across all staff is a failing at most public libraries in America. Well, it was until now. I am hearing so many happy reports of staff working together like never before. Meeting virtually, using communication tools like Slack [tools some administrators couldn't get people to use previously], and simply working together across departments to see how they can all use their skills to help all of the patrons as one united front-- not as separate silos working in a vacuum.

This is so heartening and I hope after we are "back to normal" that everyone keeps this positive, whole library communication going.

Time will tell, but for now, since staff are communicating I want you, as one of the RA people at your library to start gathering a staff quarantine "reading" list. [Note: I am using "reading" to mean every format you circulate for leisure items.]

Use whatever commutation platform is woking for your library and start a thread where you ask staff to share what they are reading. Why did they pick that book? Why was it a good read at this time. And most importantly, how did they access it? Include things people are watching and listening to also. If you circulate video games, include those too. Everything they are filling their downtime with.

On your websites, make a list of what you staff is using to pass their time, as long as it is something you currently circulate or possibly will. Include things from streaming services too, especially if you circulate onus and they can access these things after you are back open again. Don't separate the list by formats. Include it all in one place. In other words, don't get back to siloing the information by departments. Resist the urge.

This is a wonderful activity to create a sense of everyone being in this together-- both among staff and between staff and the public. I would even try to encourage patrons to interact and add their own quarantine "reads" too. Post on social media or enable the comments on your websites.

Then staff and patrons can try out the recommendations of others and maybe even engage in virtual conversations about the items they are enjoying.

The more voices you include the more inclusive and diverse the lists will be. The more voices you include, the more varied the options. This will be a great way for all staff to share their interests and engage each other in conversation. People who barely interacted before may find they have something in common.

This activity will also allow you to see the preferences of your entire staff in one place. You can see who has interests that you didn't know about. Those people can then be approached to do a bit more. Maybe they can make watch alike or readalike lists. Or what about asking them to prepare a "boot camp" for the rest of the staff on their specialty? You can work with them to figure out how they want to share their knowledge with everyone else. A list, a video, audio file, slide show....whatever that staff member wants to do. You could use this time to gather the different voices from people, get staff for whom it is harder to find work from home activities involved, and create content in varied formats to share with your patrons.

Remember, you staff will be more comfortable sharing their knowledge in different ways-- verbally, written, visually, etc.... and this is great because your patrons will each prefer to take in information in different ways.  We all do. Let's celebrate and honor that and create useful and helpful content in the process.

They are many applications for the future use of the information you gather by asking your staff to share their quarantine leisure options with each other [and patrons], but immediately this activity will bring everyone closer together, and it just might convince them to keep communicating as well when this is all over.

Click here for all of my RA Pantry posts on the Stock Your RA Pantry Archive page.